-The Telegraph Scholarship pool for OBCs, minorities reduced New Delhi: The pool of poor schoolchildren from the Other Backward Classes  and religious minorities who are eligible for two government scholarships has been drastically cut short from this year. The Centre has revised two schemes — the Pre-Matric Scholarship for OBCs and the Pre-Matric Scholarship for minorities — by limiting eligibility to students of Classes IX and X, and only those enrolled in...

-The Hindu The Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed by Parliament in 2005, aiming to give people access to the records of the Central and State governments. It was a vital reform to help activists and individuals ensure transparency and accountability in governance. In a discussion moderated by Sonikka Loganathan, Anjali Bhardwaj and Saurav Das take stock of what’s working and the issues that appear to be weakening the law....

-The Hindu Business Line MSMEs face a credit gap of ₹25 lakh crore as formal lenders meet less than 15 per cent of the sector’s requirements Quarterly MSME loan disbursements have increased over two-fold in the last two years, but the approval rate for medium-risk MSMEs has seen no improvement — a reflection of the lender’s low risk appetite, according to venture capital firm BLinC Invest. The increase in disbursements has been made...

-The Hindu The West’s attempt to cut Russia’s oil revenues without drastically affecting global oil supplies may be too fine a balancing act in the longer run The Group of Seven (G7) countries, the European Union and Australia have imposed a price cap on Russian sea-borne oil to make it harder for Russia to fund its war against Ukraine. Under the plan, which took effect on December 5 , Western companies that...

-Financial Express Higher sowing augurs well for bountiful wheat and oilseed production The resilience of India’s agricultural sector has been a positive factor in the India growth story. During the ongoing rabi season, the average area sown for wheat is up by 25%, to 25.5 million hectares as of December 9, from a year earlier. Area under oilseeds, too, is at record levels. All of this augurs well for bumper rabi crops...